I have a Lease in Burke County North Dakota; Section 35; Township 162 North; Range 92 West that’s about to expire in five(5) months. Can anyone tell me if there’s a well on this property or any other action happening??? Thank You in advance… Respectfully Pamela F Peterson
Pamela, there are no current active wells in your spacing, just the old to very old dry wells. Samson does have recent wells in your area just below and a few miles to the west. I would call it fair production at 22k bbl to 25k bbl in 5 months. It might not be worth jumping for joy over but it's good to know that your minerals are desirable. I saw no active drilling rigs in your area, but I would still consider the area active from the recent wells and some fairly close I assume are waiting to be fracked because they are DRL status, which is a green circle on the map. 5 months is too far out to hazard a guess as to whether your spacing will be drilled before your lease expires. I hope this helps.
Good Morning Mr Kennedy, Thank You for your informative reply, it has helped me to understand what’s happening. Could I run another request by you??? I have another Lease in Burke County North Dakota, Township 161 North; Range 92 West; Sections 2 & 3. I was told earlier this year by a Land Man, that a well was drilled in Section 14 & crossed over Section 11 & then into Section 2[one(1) of my sections]. I haven’t heard anything since about its status or even if this is true. Could you check out the status of that situation/well??? Respectfully Pamela F Peterson
Pamela, I would say that that information is correct. That would be one of the wells that I saw which it's a safe bet that awaiting fracking. Well name Los Gatos 11-2-161-92H spud date 8-5-2012. Pamela this will bring up another point, if you did not lease these spacings separately, you could be held by continuing operations in your undrilled spacing, if the language in your lease is vague and held by production if the operator gets any before your lease expires. I think a careful reveiw of your lease may be in order so you will at least know. Consider everything in it's broadest possible intent.
Good Afternoon Mr Kennedy again, Thank You once again for your diligent & accurate research in regards to Township 162 North; Range 92 West; Sections 2 & 3. Fortunately/Unfortunately I signed a new Lease in February,2013 that included both Sections 2 & 3. Other than crying in my wine & smoking my last Big Cuban, I assume there’s nothing I can do to change this??? Moving on, could you inform me as to when & how I might be informed as to what’s happening with Los Gatos 11-2-61-92H spud date 8-5-2012??? I hold another Lease in Burke County ND T-162-N R-92-W Section 35. Any ideas as to the going rate/‘mineral acre’ there??? Respectfully Pamela F Peterson
Pamela, I wish you would call me RW or Robert. Bob even.
I hope from your last question it means that you did not lease both spacings on the same lease so it will act as a natural pugh clause. Spud date on the Los Gatos was 8-5-2012, that is when they actually started drilling. If the stars align a well can be drilled and completed [fracked] in about 45 days, but when do we get so lucky? Most wells are probably completed in the 6 to 9 month time frame.
Los Gatos is DRL [drilling] status which means that they are working on the well, which probably means they are waiting to frack or currently fracking. It is a pain to frack a well in the dead of winter in ND, they have to put additives into hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and or hire heater trucks to heat the frack water so it doesn't freeze so they can pump it.
Marlene, I hope you have already been paid for the lease on sections 2 and 3 because they would probably not pay you if they can find anything in the previous lease that says they do not have to, such as a continuing operations clause.
Pamela, there is no activity on your section T-162 R 92 section 35 although there is recent activity around resulting in fair if not good production, as was the focus of my reply of 7 hours ago.
I hope you find this helpful. I really hope you got paid for section 2 and 3. I hope you have a great day.
Good Afternoon RW, How’s that for a new salutation??? I have another situation that just occurred several hours ago. Permit me to shed some background. I had a Lease with Sampson[TWP 161N;Range 92W; Sections 2&3.] which expired in Dec 2012. Along comes Williston Hunter represented by Sundance Oil & Gas LLC offering me a three(3) year Lease with no extensions and the offer was very amicable,so I took the offer, signed the papers, received the check, deposited it and I was anxiously awaiting word thru some means that they would be drilling shortly. Also, the Lease was already registered within Burke County’s Registrar Office. I checked this myself earlier. Just this morning, I had a phone call from the same Petroleum Landman from Sundance Oil & Gas LLC telling me that the lawyers involved with the Sampson to Mangum Hunter transfer dropped the ball. Now this is what I was told but I cannot verify it. Apparently, New Leases were not to be released but the old Leases were to be extended by three(3) years with an addumen. If Mangum did not comply, there could/would be some heavy damages involved. So Williston Hunter who is a subsidiary Mangum Hunter is going about asking current clients who hold Leases in question to please just agree to this request. I was hesitant to say yes right away. I asked him if anyone else balked at just going along & he told me that I was the first to raise a concern/question… I asked him to send me the addum so that I could do do digilence. There’s probably a ton of concerns/questions that go along with this request. In your years of experience, have you ever heard of such a happening??? Could I call upon you for your gut reaction to such a situation??? Maybe you could offer three(3) issues that I may need to address & flatten before the addum arrives??? Once again,RW, Thank You for time & knowledge. [Paying it Forward was a Heart Warming but sad ending movie]. Respectfully Pamela F Peterson
Pamela, good evening. The salutation is much better! All you need to know right now is that you have a valid lease recorded. Anything else is just noise because you have done nothing wrong. I hardly think the want you to agree to be extended because it would be in your favor. If they call you again, tell them you wanted to be leased and you are, and wish them a good afternoon. If, on the outside chance they want to add something to an extention better than your present offer and all are agreeable, you may help them out, ut as I said before, I hardly think they are contacting you to give you a better deal. Have a great evening Pamela.
Robert
Good Afternoon RW, Thank You for your valuable reply in regards to my last inquiry. We are in agreement. Before the phone call that came yesterday, I planned to ask you where, what Internet links, Websites or whatever that I can reference/visit in order to learn the real-time status of my wells??? Also, are companies, anyone in this industry required to inform you about any/all transactions such handing off your Lease to someone else??? Once again, Thanx for your support & responses… Respectfully Pamela F Peterson ES Have over extended my welcome???
Good afternoon Pamela,
Pamela, I'm sure your welcome goes alot farther than you have yet been.
As for realtime status on your wells, there is no way to know unless you get it from the operator. The next best thing is a subscription to the NDIC Oil &Gas Division which generally runs about 5 weeks behind because it depends on the operator to report. The $50 per year subscription is I think worth it, to checks production numbers and you can even look in the well files for all information the operator has submitted to the state for your wells. It may not be realtime but at least it's a fair, recent, after action report. This is of course after the 6 months confidential period. For a well that has not been drilled yet you can watch the rig movement notices (I don't worry about this because there is no way I can effect it) or gleen some information from the GIS map found on the NDIC O&G site, the rig symbol on your spacing is a good sign as is a green circle which would mean DRL status which means drilling, which strangely enough, usually means it's already been drilled and awaiting fracking or repair. Production information for wells still on confidential status can be found in general statistics, usually about 6 weeks behind. The operator can Keep all else confidential during the confidential period but he must still report sales. I find it a real pain to find the sales information in general statistics because it has the sales numbers for every well in the state and you have to scroll until you find yours. No special skill required, but patience.
Pamela, do not hesitate to ask questions, I am not worried about repeating myself because alot of information needs to be repeated so it's easier for someone to search on the principle that it's easier to find one of two needles in a haystack than it is to just find one, if someone searches for the same information in the future. Have a great evening.
Robert
Good Evening Robert,
BZs[Bravo Zulus] all around. I took your input & purchased the option @ NDIC Oil & Gas. What an eye opener...
Please reference the following E-Mail that I sent to you previously:
Reply by Pamela F Peterson on March 27, 2013 at 4:06pm
which discusses a situation with a recent lease that I signed back in January, 2013.
There are several threads happening here which I Hope I can convey to you with the Hope that you might be able to enlighten me.
I signed a five(5) year Lease with Great Northern Energy, Inc back on 12 Dec 2007 to lease to them the Mineral Rights for the following:
Burke County; Twp 161N; Range 92W; Sections 2 & 3.
On 13 Dec 2012, Williston Hunter, a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter wrote a three(3)year Lease for the same parcel of Mineral Rights. I agreed to their offer which I felt was amicable and substantial. The Lease was signed, returned, and bonus check received and cashed. At this time, I felt this Lease was behind me.
About two(2) months later, Williston Hunter comes back at me telling me that I need to discard this new Lease
and told I should sign a new Lease that just 'extends' the old Lease for three(3) years. I can keep the bonus check issued earlier with no problem. I passed on this offer just because I felt a bird in hand is worth two(2) in the bush.
Long and behold, someone up the chain of command contacts me again about this situation asking me to reconsider and just sign the extended Lease. I ask why should I because,I have a signed-sealed Lease in-hand.
He tells me that it's going to cost Williston Hunter considerably if I don't agree. He doesn't say anything more
so I say send me the Lease and I'll talk to my Lawyer. The Lease arrives I read it over, Lawyer jargon to me, which says they want to extend the previous Lease and they reference the Book and Page registered with the county registrar's office. They keep calling me asking me to please go along with their request.
Question to you; have you heard of anything like this happening before???
I ask you for your opinion; what should I do??? It's an opinion, I still need to make the decision if you understand...
Once again RW, Thank You for taking the time to read my tales of woe in regards to Oil & Gas Leases.
Respectfully
Pamela F Peterson
Good evening Pamela,
If the terms were identical, there probably would be no problem for you to sign the new lease. I somehow get the feeling that there is something different in the leases that would be detrimental to you if you should discard the present lease, so I would not do it. This said not having read the two leases. I recommend you stay with the lease you have and play it safe.
Another consideration is, if it would have no meaningful impact on anyone and just a technical matter, why is NOG being so hard nosed about it? I fully realise that this is dog eat dog oil and gas but this sounds excessive.
What is being asked of you should not be free. You are not their employee, they have already been taking up your time. You have already had to consult a lawyer. I would have my lawyer go over both lease and extention with a fine tooth comb along with my reading of both and to me your time is just as valuable as the CEO of Williston Hunter, and your attorneys time should be paid for even if he said he would do it for free. You should get something for your time and effort.
Have they put in writing that you may keep the bonus from the present lease? You do know that anything said on the telephone never happened unless you were recording it [ check your state laws ] ? This is yet more lawyer time to determine if you have any exposure. Case in point would be Cara Simmons from these forums, she had inherited some mineral acres and she leased some immediately. A landman contacted her soon after and badgered her to lease those same acres to him. A landman from these forums said "go ahead, a landman wouldn't be wanting to lease from you if it were wrong". Cara made very few posts after that, what she did post was so dark it makes me look like a ray of sunshine. I almost begged her not to lease the same acres twice, I told her not to do it, but I didn't beg her and now I wish I had. Cara is still a member but she wiped practically every post she ever made. Pamela, the only basis on which I would sign the extention, would be if they first released your current lease, and then only after I was certain there was nothing disadvantageous in the extention compared to the present lease and they still need to pay you something for your and your board certified oil and gas attorney's time and effort. Simply put, if you have two active leases for the same acres you have a potential lawsuit and I see no reason to spread the trouble to include you! If you decide to do this, make them release the present lease first and pay for your expensive oil and gas attorney so you have maximum safety, I beg you.
Best wishes,
Robert W. Kennedy
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Good Afternoon Mr Kennedy, I’m still fighting with these folks who screwed up issuing a Lease before their Philedphia lawyers read the text completely. I took your advice & didn’t give in. I put together an E-Mail to them explaining my concerns & offered a set of conditions under which I would go along with them. Below is a copy of my E-Mail that I sent to them.
Good Morning Preston J Page & Christina Hunt[Land Manager & Attorney-In-Fact], I am willing to accept your offer in this regard but I do have some stipulations that I would like to see implemented. I would like to see a signed, certified instrument from the Registrars office in Burke County showing me that the new Lease[Instrument Number: 243762; Recording Date: 25 Jan 2013] has been nullified/removed from the recording system. When I receive this instrument in my hands and I have verified through my own means that things are within the law I will proceed to fulfill your request under duress. I have a serious concern that two(2) Leases could be covering the same set of Mineral Rights which is my main concern for this stipulation. In addition, I feel some compensation is due for the stress and anguish to fulfill your request and persistence on your part. My other stipulation was that whatever transpired to secure the new Lease would Not be changed. I see my concern was nullified after reading your letter of 04 Apr 2013. I Hope this finds you in agreement. Could you please E-Mail me immediately after receiving this E-Mail so I know it arrived satisfactorily. Thank You… Respectfully Pamela F Peterson
Below is their reply to my E-Mail message: Pam,
Williston Hunter, Inc. will not be able to release the oil and gas lease of record until the extension of oil and gas lease is recorded. The reason for this is Williston Hunter Inc. would then run the risk of having paid $80,040.00 and not have an effective oil an effective oil and gas lease. Williston Hunter Inc. is also concerned about clouding the title by having both an oil and gas lease of record and an extension of oil and gas lease on the same property. Upon recording of the extension of oil and gas lease, Williston Hunter Inc would then promptly file a release of oil and gas lease and supply you with a copy.
As for the compensation, Williston Hunter Inc. has paid a fair and adequate amount for the oil and gas lease. They are simply asking for your cooperation and apologize for the inconvenience.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me anytime.
Preston
So here I am back to square one. They have the same concern that says either way someone will be without a Lease for this property. They screwed up royally and from what I have heard, they Williston Hunter or the Mother company, Magnum Hunter will pay dearly their mistake. Is this the kind of behavior I can expect from these people??? What have you heard if anything about Sampson and Magnum Hunter[Sundance]. Thanx for your expert advice on these matters. Respectfully Pamela F Peterson
Good evening Pamela,
This is pretty normal for any oil/land company, they expect you to trust them but they do not trust you. The reason they don't trust you Pamela, is because they know what they would do if the positions were reversed and it does not speak well of them.
You offered to help them out of the position they are in, provided your rightful interest to avoid exposure was respected and they refused, refused because the exposure would be theirs if the proceedure in your e-mail was followed and they weren't about to do that. I think they should have at least sent you a message Pamela, that they would run it past their attorney to see if there was a way to satisfy both sides.
One of my lawyers says that oil companies are like 5 year olds, they want what they want and getting what they want is all that matters. They probably can't even conceive that you have to protect yourself because a lawsuit could cost more than your lease bonus.
Pamela, I would send them another e-mail to tell them to stop bothering you about the extention, followed by a notarized letter with tracking telling them to stop bothering you and that you will report them for harassment if they do not cease bothering you about the extention.
If anyone is in trouble Pamela, it isn't you. You offered to help as long as it didn't put you at risk and as long as you were compensated for your expenses and time. Believe me, if you wanted something from them, they wouldn't be doing it for free or eating legal fees. I think all you can do now is wish them luck with "their" troubles and go on with your life. Some people you just can't help, and anyone working for wealthy oil and gas companies who wan't you to take all the risk when it was never your problem to begin with, is probably someone I wouldn't want to talk to anyway. I'm reasonably certain the feeling would be mutual after the 4th or 5th time they contacted me.
I think part of the problem is respect. land/oil companies don't respect you. It's possible that they are so out of touch with reality that they can't even understand why you wouldn't jump at the chance to expose yourself to a possible lawsuit just so you could do a wealthy corporation a favor that they themselves wouldn't do. I think it's more than a little insulting.
Best wishes,
Robert Kennedy
Good Evening RW, It’s me again. Thanx for your input in regards to this oil leasing business. I stumbled across something that I would like to shoot across your bow. I have Mineral Rights in Burke County, Township 161, Range 92, Sections 2 & 3. Earlier in the year, I learned from a land man that someone drilled a horizontal well from Section 14 across Section 11 & then into Section 2. I didn’t learn until you informed me about the Special Services option on NDIC that I could actually see what was happening with my Leases. I signed up & paid the man. With a friends assistance, I just learned thru the NDIC options that the well is now listed as dry!!! Does this finding tell me that it’s all over for this well??? It seems strange that having spudded the well in August, 2012 that now it’s dry. Would I be far from the truth if I said something smells fishy??? Here’s a hypothetical case; what if no oil is found on my holdings during the next ten(10) years, will it still have the same dollar value as of today??? [I Hope you polished your crystal ball lately]. Once again for Thank You for your wisdom & assistance. Respectfully Pamela F Peterson
Good evening Pamela, I'm pleased to hear from you again.
As for the shot across my bow, please note that I do not scare easlily and firmly believe that armor less than 4 inches thick only serves to detonate ordinance that might have passed through harmlessly otherwise ; )
Pamela, I am pleased to be able to tell you that Samson only drilled to just under 1,600 feet, the well had not even turned from the verticle to horizontal, so I would say no, that Samson did not drill your mineral acres because the well was aborted plugged and abandoned long before they could have ever even learned what is down there.
Samson seemed to be having problems, with leases about to expire they sought permission to bring in a small less capable rig to drill part of the well which would have held the leases by continuing operations although they claim that was not the purpose to use the less capable rig. The NDIC did allow the use of the small rig. Samson later asked that the well be given temporary abandoned status (TA) but this was denied. Your well going north basically never was.
The well going south fared no better, drilled to 1,631 feet.
Nothing was learned. I do not know if Samson has continued to maintain the leasehold on these non-productive [in the Bakken] spacings. There is however production from the 12-1 spacing that actually looks fair if the drilling and completion costs were kept low-reasonable. The gas production suggests that the field pressure is better than I would have expected for the area and I would find it promising. I believe that Samson was facing the loss of much of their leasehold that they would have to lease again or were undercut by speculators making the completion of the wells less beneficial than desired for Samson so they walked.
Someone will benefit in the future. There is a pad and a road and the soft soil has been stabilized with concrete. There was talk of breaking up the soil but I doubt they will do any more than absolutely necessary, because this would be on top of their other losses. I do believe that they will treat the soil for PH which would also fertilize it to encourage regrowth of grass.
Pamela, in hindsight it looks like there may have been a leasing opportunity missed. I think the well had a good chance of being considered an asset if you could have negotiated a decent royalty and other provisions in the lease, especially because you wouldn't have to host the road, pad, tanks or well. I wouldn't consider it all bad. Someone will come back for your oil eventually. If as much improvement is made in completion and oil recovery techniques in the next 5 years as there have been in the last 5, you could be paid handsomely for having to wait.
Pamela, I hope you find this of some use. I also hope you have a good evening and a pleasant tomorrow.
Robert
Good Morning RW, Thank You once again for your informative response to my last set of concerns/questions. After reading your reply over several times, I have a few more inquiries & follow up that only you seem to have the answers to. Can you enlighten me further in regards to your “from the 12-1 spacing” in your reply??? Also, if “12-1” refers to Sections, I scanned across from 12-1 & most of the wells looked in bad condition. Did I misunderstand something??? I went to The NDIC web site & invoked the GIS option showing me TRS[161,92,14]Burke County. It showed me a horizontal line going from Section 14 across Section 11 & then ending in Section 2 but the File option did not show me any horizontal activity. Any idea(s) as to why the difference in data entry??? More importantly, I didn’t miss a leasing opportunity with this section. If I may, permit me to background my concerns/questions with this lease. I signed a Lease for Burke County[161,92,2 & 3] back in December,2005 which terminated in December, 2012. I was approached in late November, 2012 to consider re Leasing this Lease with another exploratory company. They made me what I considered a Great offer so I signed up for it in January, 2013 & received the check in-hand in February,2013. I checked the ND Burke County Registrar’s Office & learned that the Lease was registered so I felt things were behind me. I think I mentioned earlier, that they came back in early April,2013 asking me to extend the old Lease. Long story short, I haven’t changed my mind since. In view of this situation, I decided to take your advice & purchased the option only to learn that the well was capped & dry. So that’s why I came back to you again. Can I call upon your assistance & knowledge once again??? Could you check on the status of the following Leases; Burke County: 162,92,35; 162,92,24 & 27 & 35; 162,92,1. OBTW, 162,92,35 is coming due in August,2013… Do know where I can obtain a description/meaning of the well symbols in the GIS Mapping??? Now, go have your morning cup of coffee. We’ll chat again later… Pamela F Peterson
Good afternoon Pamela,
In 161-92 sections 12-1 drill spacing there is a XXL long lateral horizontal wellbore [Saratoga] that looks fairly good, the wellhead itself is in section 13. Production of 30,976 barrels oil in 7 months is not going to set the world on fire but I do think it will make money. If oil and gas mixed together are champagne, the gas is the fizzy bubbles that push the wine out of the bottle and the gas production and production overall looks better than I would have expected in this area. I believe that this well probably cost no more than 7-8 million dollars unless they ran into difficulty and maybe if they did have trouble.
Pamela, it looks like the fault was mine. I should have explained before that the wellhead was actually in section 13, draining the 12-1 spacing next to your 11-2 spacing in 161-92.
Pamela, I should have recalled that you did have a lease, and I am glad you did. That you were able to lease again is a good thing also. I think it's likely you will see drilling action in this lease cycle in 161-92.
I62-92 does not have alot going on in your sections. Section 24 has a verticle Madison formation well that is pretty irrelevant unless it's on your mineral acres 48,6xx bbl oil and just under 250,000 MCF of gas over 30+ years.
162-92-1 is in the unitized area, has a very small amount of Madison production. If the deep rights are held, I wouldn't expect any Bakken development. I haven't heard of Taqa North exploring the Bakken nor have I heard of them farming out their leasehold. Taqa's more recent Madison wells don't look like they are making money either. I think that is a bad combination, and that they will sit on the Bakken rights as long as necessary until they can recoup their losses from someone who wants to explore the Bakken badly enough, don't hold your breath.
Pamela, the other sections have some old wells which either never produced or fell below profitability far enough they were plugged. One of the wells might have been from the 70's from it's low 5 digit file number but I didn't bother to look it up because it never produced, the rest of the wells were in the four digit range, very old. For what the operators are seeking today, those old wells are irrelevant. There may be no activity on these leases or even in the next lease cycle as the area is a relative unknown. I think keeping it under lease is the best you can do with the T-162 R-92 sections. Most of the truly prime minerals acres are held but there is a huge amount of acres between fair and good that are not held by production and there probably will be for another 5 years or so and your acres are roughly 5 spacings out of probably 7,000 Bakken wells waiting to be drilled. I think the two spacings in T-161 are closer to the head of the line because success breeds success and you have a new well close to you. You also have a new lease so you are on the back burner.
Pamela, that is as far as my crystal ball goes. I'm glad it sees some good and nothing actively bad except for Taqa in 162-92-1, even if they don't have your deep rights, they probably hold someone elses and it amounts to the same thing, blocking exploration. I hope this helps and that you have a good evening.
Robert W. Kennedy
Good Evening Mr Kennedy, It’s me Pamela F Peterson. Back to Asking A Million Question(s) again. Since I last corresponded,I have been reading the messages coming from the Mineral Rights Forum and of course I have learned many new and interesting things about this business but I’ll never be able to fill your shoes. So my question(s) is this; I have a Lease with Lario Oil & Gas that expires 15 August 2013. Five(5) years ago, I signed a three(3) year extension with them for $300.00/acre. Can you tell me if they are still in the area[162/92/35 Burke County, ND]??? What are the chances that they will execute the extension or will they just file a drilling permit and I get nothing??? I know how to research some stuff but how do I go about learning what permit activity if any is happening on my property. Is there a Web Site that I can reference and what steps do I follow to learn about ‘permit activity’??? Once again, Thank You for sharing your knowledge about this business. Respectfully Pamela F Peterson
Good evening Pamela, I hope you have been well.
Lario is an operator who could actually drill wells and with that being said, it depends on their stake in the spacing whether they will be permitted to drill a well or not as the company with the greatest leasehold has first dibbs on it. It does not have to be a majority, just the largest leasehold. Lario appears to like to take positions and be the non-operator as much as they like drilling wells and also assign areas they have started development on to larger players. Pamela, Lario may not even hold your lease anymore, they could well have assigned it to someone else for a quick profit at some point in the past or more recently want to unload it on someone else because the area has not been active recently and getting some of their money back would be better than nothing.
Pamela, I looked at the GIS map and I don't see where your spacing has been permitted in the time period of your lease. I see no permits within miles of your spacing and no rig symbols. I think this is probably because of the success that Samson had in the area. The nearest well to 162-92-35 was drilled just south of your spacing from 161-92-13 by Samson and they tried hard in my opinion to drill a good well 40 frack stages, no mention of ceramic (artificial propant sand) but they went to a fair amount of expense and effort and the results were only ok, 33,658 bbl oil in 8 months, on pump from the start and down to 2,682 bbl oil in April. This Samson well is going to be profitable as long as it keeps producing but 6-7 years or more is not the payout companies really want. Lario wants to drill wells that are home runs, if they drill a well that is not a home run, it looks like they would rather pass it off to someone else to operate and recoup their investment so they can search for more home runs and speculate on more unproved acres.
Pamela, $300 per acre is low for acres you intend to drill but to a smaller operation it might look like money out the window or good money after bad if the area is inactive because they could always come back and try and lease you for $600 if things look up 5-6-7 years from now.
Pamela, the lessee/assignee could pick up the option, they might be gamblers or a larger operator may now hold your lease but $300 per acre is fairly high for pure speculation in an inactive area. I think the chance is low that you will have a well drilled in the next 38 months much less before your current lease ends. It may be better if they did pick up the option to put money in your pocket. If I were satisfied with the royalty provision of the lease and thinking it unlikely that drilling would occour, I might remind the lessee that the lease is running out. A gamble but not a huge one as long as the royalty is satisfactory. If the royalty rate is unsatisfactory, I would just do nothing.
Pamela, that is what I see, there is oil to be had there but your spacing is probably far down the priority list. Have a great evening/morning/day,
Robert